Former Izadi captives of Daesh repatriated to northern Iraq

More than two dozen women and children from the Izadi minority group have been repatriated to Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh after years of captivity at the hands of Daesh terrorists in neighboring Syria.

“Today, we will hand over 25 people — 10 women and 15 children — to the Izadi Council in Sinjar,” Ziyad Rustam, an official with a Kurdish-run group that reunites rescued Izadi children with their relatives, told AFP on Saturday, adding, “They will be sent to their families.”

The so-called Syrian Democratic Forces last month announced the defeat of Daesh after tens of thousands of people streamed out of the last vestige of the terror group’s territorial rule in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border.

The media bureau of Iraqi pro-government Popular Mobilization Units – better known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi – announced in a statement on March 12 that a dozen Izadi children had been reunited with their families after a delicate intelligence operation.